Abstract: It is intended to provide a drug which is efficacious against pathological conditions relating to arginine-vasopressin V1b receptor. More particularly speaking, it is intended to provide a drug which has a therapeutic or preventive effect on depression, anxiety, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's chorea, eating disorders, hypertension, digestive diseases, drug addiction, epilepsy, brain infarction, brain ischemia, brain edema, head injury, inflammation, immune diseases, alopecia and so on. As the results of intensive studies, a novel 1,3-dihydro-2H-indol-2-one compound and a pyrrolidin-2-one compound fused with a heteroaromatic ring, which are highly selective antagonists of arginine-vasopressin V1b receptor, have high metabolic stabilities and show favorable brain penetration and high plasma concentrations, are found, thereby achieving the above objective.

Abstract: This invention can perform inkjet printing operation which can reduce density irregularity and reduce deterioration in image quality without causing any deterioration in graininess. The invention relates to an image correction method or inkjet printing apparatus which divides the scanning area of a printhead into a plurality of count areas and printing areas in the scanning direction, counts the number of dots printed in each count area, and forms an image by modifying image data in the next printing area in accordance with the counted number of dots. Image data is modified by counting multilevel image data. The modified multilevel image data is converted into binary data. The binary data is then printed.

Abstract: An ink jet printing method is provided, in which “color banding” and “time different unevenness” are solved simultaneously, and bidirectional multi-pass printing can be achieved with a small number of multi-passes. Thus, part of a plurality of groups, which are formed by dividing a nozzle row of a print head with the number of multi-passes, is set to be in a nonuse state (or low allowable rate of printing) in a predetermined scanning direction so as to perform printing, while a mask pattern to be used in a forward scan and a backward scan is suitably changed. Therefore, it becomes possible to unify the orders of providing inks (the orders of printing), and the print timings at a plurality of print scans, between contiguous print regions, and even all over the print regions.

Abstract: In a configuration in which a printhead including a plurality of first printing elements for discharging ink droplets and a plurality of second printing elements for discharging ink droplets larger than ink droplets discharged by the first printing elements is used, the first and second plurality of printing elements are divided into multiple blocks in such a manner that the first printing elements belong to one block and the second printing elements belong to another block. The blocks are individually driven in a time-divisional manner. In the time-divisional driving, the block consisting of the plurality of first printing elements is driven first and then the block consisting of the second printing elements is driven.

Abstract: A baking apparatus according to one embodiment of the invention includes a hotplate which performs heat treatment to a substrate placed on the hotplate, a base which has at least three support pins passing through through-holes made in the hotplate and supporting the substrate on the hotplate from a backside of the substrate and is vertically movably placed, and a plurality of sensors which are provided at a tip portion of each support pin respectively and sense contact with the substrate. A pattern forming method according to one embodiment of the invention includes forming an antireflection film and a resist film on a substrate to be processed and forming a resist pattern by performing pattern exposing.

Abstract: An inkjet printing apparatus which performs time-divisional driving poses the following problem for at least some gray levels when halftoning control by the unit matrix is performed. More specifically, the shape of a dot cluster in each unit matrix periodically changes due to the mismatch between the unit matrix size and the unit section size of time-divisional driving. For this reason, periodical density unevenness is generated and appears as degradation of the image quality. In order to prevent degradation of the image quality, according to this invention, image data is shifted in accordance with the unit section of time-divisional driving, or the discharge timing of ink from a printhead is shifted.

Abstract: A method of preventing image degradation due to nonejecting nozzles of a recording head is provided for an inkjet recording apparatus for recording images by ejecting ink from plural nozzles disposed in the recording head. The method according to the present invention includes the steps of measuring and recording a pattern for checking an ejection state of the head, determining a nonejecting nozzle from the pattern, obtaining density distribution for each nozzle, and determining a complementary table for every nozzle from the density distribution in the nonejecting nozzle portion for performing different-color complementing.

Abstract: In an inkjet printing apparatus which generates satellites droplets, problems in an image attributable to the satellites are mitigated as far as possible. For this purpose, each parameter is adjusted to satisfy a relationship such that the distance between positions of placement of a main droplet and a satellite substantially agrees with an integral multiple of the width of an index pattern. As a result, a satellite is likely to be placed in a position overlapping a dot formed by a main droplet printed in the same area of a pixel located in the vicinity of the satellite, which prevents satellites from placement blank positions where no dot should be printed. Thus, the influence of satellites is mitigated, and problems in an image attributable to satellite are reduced.

Abstract: In an image area printed by a nozzle group including a defective nozzle, pixels printed by the defective nozzle and part of pixels located in the vicinity of the same are printed by another nozzle group. As a result, since printing is performed not only at the pixels printed by the defective nozzle but also at the pixels in the neighborhood thereof simultaneously by separate nozzles, irregularities of printing attributable to interpolation are distributed even when there is a relative misalignment between the nozzle groups. It is therefore possible to obtain a preferable image without any increase in output time even when a printing head including a defective nozzle is used.

Abstract: A substrate processing method is arranged to perform a heat process on a substrate with a coating film formed thereon to bake and cure the coating film. At first, the substrate, with the coating film formed thereon, is held at a preparatory temperature lower than a lower limit of temperature for baking and curing the coating film, to adjust distribution of a predetermined component in the coating film. Then, the substrate, with distribution of the predetermined component thus adjusted, is subjected to a heat process at a temperature not lower than the lower limit of temperature.

Abstract: The invention has an object to provide a liquid discharge recording method and a liquid discharge recording apparatus capable of outputting images at high speed with high quality and high reliability, and has a feature in that when adjacent overlapping dots are formed on a print material, the dots are formed with a dot placement time difference that may reduce uneven optical densities of the overlapping portion of the dots.

Abstract: There is provided an ink jet printing apparatus capable of printing an image having few joining stripes. Dot count is performed regarding an image printed in the vicinity of the joining stripe, and print duty is judged. Next, a dot count value is determined from the print duty. Then, a print data correction rank is determined beforehand in accordance with properties of the printing apparatus, and image data to be printed in the vicinity of the joining stripe is added or thinned out. Thus, an image can be printed which has few black and white stripes.

Abstract: This invention can perform inkjet printing operation which can reduce density irregularity and reduce deterioration in image quality without causing any deterioration in graininess. The invention relates to an image correction method or inkjet printing apparatus which divides the scanning area of a printhead into a plurality of count areas and printing areas in the scanning direction, counts the number of dots printed in each count area, and forms an image by modifying image data in the next printing area in accordance with the counted number of dots. Image data is modified by counting multilevel image data. The modified multilevel image data is converted into binary data. The binary data is then printed.

Abstract: In an ink jet printing apparatus in which satellites are produced, it is an object to minimize image impairments caused by the satellites in a variety of print modes. To this end, index patterns are prepared which have different sizes for different print modes. This enables satellites to land at print positions of main dots in other pixels in any of the print modes that have different distances between main dots and satellites. It is therefore possible to minimize image impairments caused by the satellites and to output a crisp image.

Abstract: A secondary color is used for printing an image with a printer so as to reduce the granularity of the printed image, particularly the light image area. Data of magenta and cyan color components of image data is subjected to under-removal processing to generate blue ink image data as the mentioned secondary color. A blue ink dot is printed in accordance with the blue ink data obtained by the under removal processing to replace the magenta and cyan data. As a result, it is possible to reduce the granularity that would otherwise be caused by localized distributions of magenta and cyan dots.

Abstract: The present invention allows a high-speed printing by a print head in which nozzles are arranged with a high density to reduce eddy flow caused between the print head and a print medium, providing an image with a high quality. Thus, the present invention allows the same printing region of the print medium to be sequentially printed by the respective nozzle arrays provided in the print head in accordance with image data thinned-out by the mask pattern M, thereby completing the image by multi-pass. Then, a plurality of pieces of image printed to be printed to the same printing region at which the nozzle arrays pass in one pass are alternately thinned-out by different high and low thinning-out ratios in the direction in which the nozzles are arranged.

Abstract: In the present invention, a plurality of heat treatment plates are provided side by side in a linear form on a base of a heat treatment apparatus in a coating and developing treatment system. In the heat treatment apparatus, three transfer member groups are provided which transfer a substrate in zones between adjacent heat treatment plates. At the time when performing a pre-baking treatment in the heat treatment apparatus, the substrate is transferred in order to the heat treatment plates at the same temperature, whereby the heat treatment is dividedly performed on the heat treatment plates. According to the present invention, substrates are subjected to heat treatment along the same route, so that the thermal histories are made uniform among the substrates.

Abstract: In the present invention, a plurality of heat treatment units are arranged side by side in a linear form and a substrate transfer mechanism for transferring the substrate between the heat treatment units is provided in a heat treatment apparatus. The substrate is sequentially heat-treated in the arrangement order, whereby one heat treatment as a whole is dividedly and successively performed in the plurality of heat treatment units. This allows substrates to be heat-treated along the same route and uniforms the thermal history among the substrates. At the time when heat-treating a plurality of substrates the present invention causes less variation in thermal history among the substrates as compared to the case of parallel heat treatments.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprises preparing a working film to be processed, forming an adhesion improving region on the working film for increasing an adhesion between the working film and a mask material containing carbon, forming the mask material on the working film, forming a resist pattern on the mask material, the mask material having a higher etching resistance for the working film than the resist pattern, transferring the pattern of the resist pattern onto the mask material, and etching the working film by using the mask material as a mask.

Abstract: An ink jet printing apparatus, which can prevent unwanted visible bands or stripes from appearing in a printed image, performs a nozzle information generation step for generating nozzle information representing an ejection characteristic of each nozzle, according to a landing state on a print medium of an ink droplet ejected from each nozzle of the print head; an estimation step for estimating, based on the generated nozzle information and the print data, an effect that the ink droplet ejected from each nozzle has on the image to be formed; a correction information generation step for generating correction information to correct an ink ejection condition of each nozzle according to a result of estimation by the estimation step; and a control step for controlling a driving of the nozzles according to the correction information.